


Lee Jeno and the Life-Ruining Radioactive Spider

by nanaisms (sanhascroissant)



Series: Lee Jeno, Gen Fic Star [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Spider-Man Fusion, Attempt at Humor, Enjoy ?, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, He Is Just A Little Bit Annoying Sometimes, Humor, I Am Back To Add That Jung Jaehyun Is Not Actually An Asshole, Jung Jaehyun is secretly soft, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun Being an Asshole, Just Vibes, Lee Jeno-centric, No Romance, Pre-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Well - Freeform, the vibes are supposed to be vaguely funny and dialogue driven
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-23
Updated: 2020-04-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:14:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23795962
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanhascroissant/pseuds/nanaisms
Summary: Jeno cursed the damn spider in his head once again. If only spiders had a concept of personal space. Maybe then someone who actually asked for the trouble could be Spiderman and Jeno could go back to just being Awkward Chemistry Student Extraordinaire, no extra arachnid abilities attached.But no. Jeno couldn't possibly get that lucky.Or; Jeno doesn't think he's cut out to be Spiderman, but he's even less cut out to be the protegé of Jung Jaehyun — billionaire playboy, CEO of Jung Industries, and Iron Man. Too bad Jaehyun never gave him a choice.
Relationships: Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun & Lee Jeno, Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung & Lee Jeno, Lee Jeno & Mark Lee
Series: Lee Jeno, Gen Fic Star [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1865296
Comments: 22
Kudos: 117
Collections: nono birthday bash





	Lee Jeno and the Life-Ruining Radioactive Spider

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamcities](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamcities/gifts).



> for jess —
> 
> i just have to say: jeno spiderman. jeno best boy. jeno happy birthday. amen.
> 
> enjoy your fic!

Jeno tripped on the windowsill, falling into his room face first, crashing into the ground with a loud, highly conspicuous thump.

“WHAT WAS THAT RACKET? JENO LEE, YOU GET IN HERE THIS INSTANT. YOU KNOW WHAT I’VE TOLD YOU ABOUT MAKING NOISE THIS LATE AT NIGHT.”

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” Jeno muttered, peeling his face off the dusty hardwood floor of his bedroom. “COMING.”

“DON’T YELL! YOU’LL WAKE THE NEIGHBORS AND WE’LL GET MORE NOISE COMPLAINTS.”

“SAYS YOU!” Jeno yelled back, staggering to his feet and trying desperately to shimmy out of the fleece red and blue onesie.

“IS THAT SNARK I HEAR?”

“NO.” Jeno tripped over the half-empty legs of the onesie. He barely managed to grab onto the edge of his bed and stop his momentum before crashing back down to the floor once again. Groaning, he pulled himself upright, tossing the thick, dark goggles onto his desk across the room before finally freeing himself of the stupid onesie. 

Tossing the onesie into his hamper, Jeno pulled a spare t-shirt over his head with one hand, already reaching for a pair of sweatpants with the other. The stupid headache was starting to come back already, his senses heightened to the point of discomfort. Jeno could see every single tiny crack in the ceiling’s plaster, could feel the slight rumbling of the New York Subway even on the fourth floor of his apartment building, could hear a police siren that had to be several miles away _at least._

Not for the first time, he cursed the stupid radioactive spider as he left his room, turning down the hallway and heading into the kitchen. There he was faced by a very unimpressed Doyoung, arms crossed over his chest and a frown half formed on his forehead. 

“Care to explain the noise, young man?”

“I fell.” Doyoung stared at him, unimpressed. Jeno shifted awkwardly, scratching at the back of his neck. “I did! I don’t know what you want me to say.”

Doyoung sighed, letting his arms fall to his sides in defeat. He picked up his usual mug from the counter, taking a sip of his tea. 

“It’s nearly midnight. What are you still doing up?”

Jeno contemplated how to answer, considering that he couldn’t exactly say, _I was using my newfound spider senses and homegrown web fluid to swing around the city, saving members of the community from muggers and the occasional hit-and-run._ Eventually he settled on: “I was doing my math homework.”

“It’s a Friday,” Doyoung observed, one eyebrow raised. Jeno frowned, crossing his arms.

“So? I can do homework on Fridays. In fact, isn’t that what _you_ said I should do? To stop putting it off until Sunday night?”

“Well, yes.” Doyoung narrowed his eyes above the rim of his mug, taking another cautious sip. “Forgive me. I could’ve sworn you just said you listened to my advice.”

“Oh, shut up.” Doyoung smirked. 

“Well, Friday night study session or not, it’s still nearly midnight. You could do with some sleep.” 

Jeno glanced past Doyoung to the kitchen table. It was covered in papers and few textbooks, all open to various pages. All for his dissertation, no doubt. 

“Have I ever told you that you’re a hypocrite?” Jeno stared pointedly at the papers before looking back to Doyoung, who just snorted. 

“There’s a reason I’m the big brother here, Jeno. It’s so _I_ can make the mistakes and teach _you_ how to steer clear of them.”

“Not sure that’s how it works.”

“Of course it is,” Doyoung scoffed. “I’m your big brother and I say so. Now go to sleep. No more studying tonight.” 

Doyoung shooed him out of the kitchen with a final warning to keep it down, and Jeno trudged back to his own room. As the door clicked shut behind him, he let out a sigh of relief, eyes fluttering shut, blocking out the sensory overload. As the pounding behind his eyes faded, he cracked them open, gaze immediately falling on the pair of glasses on his bedside table — glasses that, as of two months ago, he no longer needed. If anything, his eyesight was _too_ good now.

In the hamper, the red and blue onesie was almost offensively colorful. Jeno sighed, thinking about the massive tear down one arm from a mugger’s swiss army knife. Yeah. He was going to need to figure out something new, and _soon.  
_

✥✥✥

“I know you’re the Spiderboy.” Jeno stared, unimpressed. The man sighed, clearly annoyed. “Uh, Spidercreature? Spiderhero? C’mon kid, don’t keep me guessing.”

“First of all, you’ve got the wrong person,” Jeno said, tugging the straps of his backpack higher onto his shoulders. “Second of all, pretty sure this is harassment. Don’t you have better things to do than accosting me, an innocent high schooler? Like, for example, running a business?”

Jaehyun Jung, CEO of Jung Industries, looked supremely offended at the insinuation. “How dare you? But really. I need your help. Fighting bad guys, catching them off guard, all that good stuff.”

“If you’re desperate enough to need _my_ help, you’re in trouble,” Jeno muttered, rolling his eyes. “How can a high school senior possibly help Iron Man?”

“Ah, so we’re on even ground! I know your secret identity, you know mine!” Jaehyun looked far too cheerful as he spoke out the window. His car was slowly rolling along the curb beside Jeno, stopping traffic and wreaking general chaos. Jeno glanced to the cars behind Jaehyun’s, and all the drivers looked infuriated. Most of them were swerving into the next lane to avoid him or honking loudly, cursing out their open windows at him, but Jaehyun seemed utterly undeterred. 

“Mr. Jung, everyone knows you’re Iron Man,” Jeno sighed. “And I’m really not the guy you’re looking for.” 

Jaehyun raised an eyebrow. “Well, we’ll see about that.” To Jeno’s relief, he rolled up his window and sped up to join normal traffic. 

_Hopefully that’s the end of it.The last thing I need is Jaehyun Jung on my case._ That was wishful thinking, but Jeno hoped that at least he was free for the day. He put his earbuds in and walked all the way back home in relative silence, mulling over how the hell _Iron Man_ had managed to find him in the first place.

Jeno shook off those thoughts, turning them to his Chemistry homework instead as he reached the apartment building, climbed the steps, and pulled out his key. 

Jeno tugged out his earbuds, calling, “Hey, Doyoung, I’m home,” over his shoulder as he shut the door behind him. 

“Hey Jeno, good day at school?”

“Yeah. I’ll be in my room, I have some homework.” Without waiting for a response, Jeno trudged down the hallway to his room. He pulled open the door to his bedroom with one hand, already beginning to slide his backpack from his shoulders.

“So you’re not Spiderboy, huh?” Jeno startled, the backpack falling to the ground with a thud. There, sitting on his bed, was an unbearably smug Jaehyun Jung, holding the godforsaken red and blue onesie in his hands. 

“It’s not mine, it’s my friend’s,” Jeno managed, choking a little on the words in his surprise. He cleared his throat. Jaehyun looked unimpressed. 

“For god’s sake, kid, drop the act.” He held the goggles up to his eyes, skepticism clear on his face. “Jesus, can you even _see_ in these?”

“How did you get into my house.”

“Your absolutely _delectable_ brother let me in,” Jaehyun said, turning his attention from the goggles to smirk greasily at Jeno. “Is he single?”

“Please stop talking immediately.” Jeno took a deep breath in, letting his eyes flutter shut. Maybe if he closed his eyes Jaehyun Jung would disappear and stop causing problems. He peeked one eye open. No, he was still there. Fuck.

“What, surely you can acknowledge that your brother is hot —”

“ _Christ_ , what do you want from me?”

Jaehyun grinned. “I am _so_ glad you asked. I assume brother dearest doesn’t know about the little arachnid operation?”

“No.” Jeno grit his teeth. “And he never will.”

“That’s overly optimistic,” Jaehyun said, getting up from the bed to wander around the room. “Everyone figured out I was Iron Man quite quickly. Inconvenient, really.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t have told everyone at a press conference then?” Jeno suggested tentatively.

Jaehyun looked up from where he was examining Jeno’s collection of Pokemon action figures on their shelf over Jeno’s desk. “I haven’t a clue what you’re talking about,” he said huffily. He picked up an Eevee. “Ooh, this is cute. What’s it’s name?”

“Can we cut to the chase, Mr. Jung? My brother is going to want me for dinner in about an hour, and I have Chemistry homework.” 

Jaehyun studied Jeno for a moment, but he appeared to believe that Jeno was serious. He sighed and put the Eevee down. 

“Here’s the thing, kid,” Jaehyun said, sitting down in Jeno’s desk chair and spinning to face him. “I’ve seen you do stuff that’s pretty goddamn incredible. You swing around on webs that have this crazy intense tensile strength, stopping muggings and bus crashes and lord knows what else. I’ve had my eye on you for a while now. But no matter how hard I try, I can’t figure out how you’re doing it.”

Jeno moved his eyes pointedly to the desk, and Jaehyun followed until his gaze fell on the vials of web fluid, and his eyes visibly lit up with interest. 

“Incredible,” he breathed, turning the web fluid over in his hands. “Care to explain it?”

“Not here,” Jeno said. “Still don’t know how the hell you figured out that I’m Spiderman, but if you can, that means other people can too, and I don’t like that in the slightest. People could already be watching.”

“So it’s Spiderman!” Jaehyun exclaimed. “Honestly, Spiderkid would be a better fit, but whatever, it’s your superhero name.” Jeno stared at him, unimpressed. “Oh, don’t look at me like that. I admit that I admire your commitment to secrecy, even though it reads just a bit on the side of paranoid.”

“I don’t think it’s paranoid,” Jeno argued. “I don’t want to put my friends and family in danger!”

“That’s a bit of a myth,” Jaehyun said, one eyebrow raised. “After all, everyone knows I’m Iron Man, and my family is doing just fine, thanks.”

“Your house was bombed like, less than a week after the world found out your identity.”

“Semantics.” Jaehyun waved a hand. “In any case, I really do need your help, so as of this second, I dub you an intern at Jung Industries. Uh, congratulations.” Jaehyun awkwardly mimicked a knighting ceremony, reaching an arm out to tap Jeno on both shoulders. “Now shall we inform the drop-dead gorgeous, smoking hot specimen of a man that is your brother that a toast is in order?”

With that, Jaehyun swept past Jeno into the hallway, leaving Jeno standing frozen in the doorway, numb with shock. Jeno blinked once, twice, and abruptly came to his senses, turning and hurrying after Jaehyun.

“And what if I don’t _want_ to be an intern at Jung Industries?”

Jaehyun waved him off. “ _Please_ , STEM kids like you would practically sell their soul to be an intern at Jung Industries, and I just handed it to you on a silver platter.”

“Bit presumptuous,” Jeno muttered. They were running out of hallway and Jeno was getting desperate. 

“Well, it was also the overwhelming amount of Jung Industries science equipment, the piles of copies of my very own research notes, and, most of all, the half-finished application on the desk that convinced me my offer would not be unwelcome,” Jaehyun said, sounding necessarily smug. 

Jeno could feel himself giving up. After all, this was his dream job — even if he was only getting in on the basis of a stupid fucking radioactive spider bite. Jeno cursed the damn thing in his head once again. If only spiders had a concept of personal space. Maybe then someone who actually asked for the trouble could be Spiderman and Jeno could go back to just being Awkward Chemistry Student Extraordinaire, no extra arachnid abilities attached.

Jeno was snapped out of his reverie by the sound of Jaehyun’s voice as he entered the kitchen, saying, “Well hello there. Do you come here often?” to a terribly amused Doyoung. To Jeno’s horror, there was already a hint of fondness in his older brother’s eyes.

He groaned loudly from the doorway, but they both ignored him. 

Curse Jaehyun Jung, and curse the stupid radioactive spider that made him interesting enough to catch Jaehyun Jung’s attention. On the other side of the kitchen, Jaehyun tried to lean cooly against the counter, but slipped. Doyoung laughed fondly from where he stood, making pasta for dinner.

Jeno rubbed his eyes with the palm of his hand as Doyoung invited Jaehyun to stay for dinner. 

✥✥✥

“He did not.” 

“He did.”

“There’s literally no way.” Mark’s voice was skeptical as Jeno pulled his History textbook from his locker. “There are so many problems with this story. Number one, he’s _Jaehyun Jung._ Surely he’s too busy with running his entire company and being the head of the Avengers Initiative to drop everything and flirt with Doyoung for three hours. Number two, how did he know about… well.” Mark trailed off. He cleared his throat. “Well, you know what. And number three, how did he find out where you live?”

“Trust me, these are all questions I’ve been asking myself, man,” Jeno muttered, slamming his locker shut and turning to walk away down the hallway, Mark following beside him. “Also is he really the head of the Avengers Initiative? I thought that was Captain America’s thing.”

“I mean, it is, kinda,” Mark said, breathless. “But it’s all on Jaehyun’s property, and he’s the one that interfaces with the government. The rumors are that Cap is actually surprisingly scratchy with authority.”

“I mean, if I lived through World War Two and seeing all the shit the Nazis did, I don’t think I’d like authority much either,” Jeno said. “Anyway, that’s not the point. Jaehyun Jung ate pasta at my kitchen table last night and spent a total of three hours in our apartment. Half an hour of that time was spent strong-arming me into being his intern, and the other two and a half hours were spent flirting with my brother.” 

“At least the interest was mutual?” Mark said tentatively.

“Yeah, I’m real happy for Doyoung, but imagine having to listen to Hendery flirt with someone for two and a half hours.” Mark made a mildly disgusted noise at the mention of his twin brother. Jeno rolled his eyes. “Exactly.”

They reached history, the both of them sliding into desks at the very back of the class. “So what are you going to do?” Mark muttered. “And what the hell does Iron Man need you for?”

“Beats me,” Jeno shrugged. “He might just really want an intern.”

Mark shot him a look. “Both you and me know it’s going to be more than that.”

Jeno sighed, staring down at the page of his history textbook. American troops marched across the page into battle against a second army, their arms bearing the swastika. Leading the charge was Captain Johnathan Seo, better known as Captain America, unflinchingly righteous supersolider andstar of a rather unfortunate number of school safety videos. 

“Maybe,” Jeno conceded. “But who knows. Maybe it’ll be something fun and not, you know, incredibly dangerous and life threatening.”

Mark shot him a concerned look across the desk and opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted by the teacher calling the class to attention.

As Mark turned to face the front, Jeno studied Johnathan Seo’s face, frozen in a battle cry, righteous fire burning in his eyes.

_Did you ask for it?_ Jeno wondered, already knowing the answer. _Why?_

Jeno sighed and tried to pay attention to the droning lecture. 

_People like Johnathan Seo and Jaehyun Jung are the real heroes,_ a voice that sounded an awful lot like himself whispered in his ear. _They chose this, to do good. All you want to do is get out. Doesn’t that make you a terrible person? Have shame, Jeno Lee._

Mark reached out across the aisle to him, squeezing his arm. “Hey, focus,” he whispered. “Don’t go dark on me, dude.”

For one long, treacherous moment, Jeno thought about how much better Mark would be at being Spiderman with his kind heart, his quiet strength, his immovable moral compass. 

The thought passed as soon as it occurred, in the blink of an eye, and Jeno found himself incredibly grateful for Mark Lee. 

He grinned. “I’m good.”

✥✥✥

“So I have a few ideas. What are you working on?”

Jeno paused mid-test, the dropper held out over the open beaker. He sighed and set it aside to face Jaehyun, who leaned up against the lab workbench and surveyed Jeno’s work, obviously intrigued. 

“I’m trying to reformulate the web fluid,” Jeno said, removing his goggles. “Work out a few kinks.”

“All the tests I’ve done on that came back with really positive results,” Jaehyun said, raising an eyebrow. “Why fix something that isn’t broken?”

“Always room for improvement,” Jeno muttered. He didn’t add that being Spiderman generally made him feel out of his depth in pretty much every area except lab work, so there was no way he was going to give that up too.

“Well, considering the fact that I’ve made about fifty of the exact same suit, I can see where you’re coming from.” Jaehyun shrugged, gesturing to the experiment. “Any luck?”

“No yet,” Jeno said, frowning and turning back to examine the half-finished prototype. “The webs are strong, that’s for sure, but I’m trying to add some elasticity. The jolt when I catch myself is pretty nasty right now since they have essentially no stretch to them.”

“As interesting as that is,” Jaehyun said cheerfully, “I couldn’t dream of understanding what on earth you’re talking about. Now, as for my ideas —” 

Jeno was mildly annoyed, but also unwilling to point out Jaehyun’s PhD in Metaphysics. The guy really didn’t need an ego boost.

“I’ve got a few prototypes for your suit, but I can’t exactly test them out without you. Ready?”

Jeno sighed. He looked longingly back at his experimental prototype, his mood already worsening. _Goodbye, moment where I could pretend that i’m just a normal intern and not some weird freak of nature._

“Sure. Lead the way.”

Jaehyun took him to his own lab, and frankly, Jeno couldn’t help but gape at the walls lined by Iron Man suits, the workbenches scattered with half-finished plans and scraps of tech.

The wide-eyed wonder faded after he tried to shoot webs at the ceiling with the first suit prototype and they backfired, hitting him so hard in the face that he staggered back a few steps, his vision entirely obscured by the stuff. To make matters worse, he tripped over a stray part and landed flat on his back, knocking the wind out of his chest.

He vaguely registered Jaehyun screaming in horror. “No, don’t do that, there’s no fire —” Unfortunately for Jeno, there was a spraying noise, and he suddenly felt soaked through. 

“What the — WHAT WAS THAT?” Jeno tried to pull the webs away from his eyes to no avail.

“Trigger-happy robot,” Jaehyun said, his voice suddenly an awful lot closer. “She thought you were on fire.” He paused. “Well, she thinks anything going wrong is the equivalent of a fire, and uses the fire extinguisher accordingly.”

Jeno huffed out a laugh, still a bit short of breath. He let his arms fall to his side, giving up on the webs entirely.

“Okay, up you get,” Jaehyun said, and suddenly a hand was on Jeno’s arm and he was getting pulled to his feet. “Can you get the webs off?”

“No, they’re fused to the mask. I think we’ll have to take the entire thing off.”

“Well, about that…” Jeno listened in horror as Jaehyun described the way the webbing reached all the way around the back, fusing the mask to the bodysuit and making him getting the stuff off an awful lot harder. 

Twenty minutes of tugging later, Jaehyun finally managed to free him by using a very delicate, smaller version of his suit’s blasters to burn the webbing away. While it worked, and Jeno was freed, the prototype was pretty much totaled. Jeno struggled to feel bad about it as he took gulps of fresh air. 

“Maybe I should consider finding a way for me to remove the webbing next time I’m in the lab,” Jeno suggested. “That would have been really bad if I was in any serious danger.” He turned to look at Jaehyun, and the man looked surprisingly solemn as he nodded. But before Jeno had time to register Jaehyun Jung being serious for probably the first time since he’d met him, the look of concern was gone, replaced by childish excitement.

“Ready for the next one?” 

Jeno groaned.

It seemed that luck was not on their side, and Jeno was sprayed by the fire extinguisher a fair few more times before the day was over. He slammed into walls, tripped over his own feet, and shot webbing everywhere, and by the time the day was over he had a headache from the sensory overload.

“Well,” Jaehyun said, surveying the lab. Tables were overturned, webbing was stuck to every spare surface and dripping down the windows, papers were strewn across the floor, and a heap of half-ruined prototypes for Jeno’s suit lay in the corner, looking oddly pitiful. “Back to the drawing board?”

“I guess.” It must have come out a bit more unenthusiastic than he had meant it to, because Jaehyun immediately looked at him.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” 

To his despair, Jaehyun didn’t lay off. Instead, he seemed even more concerned, his face dropping into an expression resembling seriousness for the second time that day. “No, Jeno, you can tell me. You’ve been a bit down all day. I thought a kid like you would have fun trying out super cool high tech suits.”

“I would, but that’s just it!” Jeno burst out. “I don’t want to be a superhero!”

Jaehyun fell silent, watching quietly as Jeno stood up from where he had been sitting at the workbench, starting to pace up and down the room, running his hands through his hair. “I wanted to have a normal senior year, graduate with honors, maybe get an internship either here or somewhere else, and go off to college. I never asked for that stupid spider to bite me, and most days, I wish it didn’t! All it gave me is a world of pain, and I mean that literally! I can hear every single thing going on in this building right now, Mr. Jung! Did you know that Maria from accounting is cheating on her husband with another man, or that John from the third floor research team is being told off by his manager right now? Well I do, because I can hear them talking as clearly as if they were in this room with us! Don’t even get me started on color and light because I seriously feel like I see in four dimensions now. Not to mention I thought there was an earthquake this morning, but it was just the subway passing under the apartment building!” 

Jeno huffed, throwing himself back into the chair and trying to block out the light with his hands, pressing his palms into his eye sockets. He could hear Jaehyun standing up from his chair and crossing the room to him, leaning on the workbench beside him, patiently waiting for Jeno to go on. 

Reluctantly, Jeno raised his eyes and continued in a small voice. “But it’s more than that.”

“I figured,” Jaehyun said gently. Jeno sighed, staring at the floor in front of him.

“I’m not cut out to be a superhero,” Jeno admitted. “I want to help people, but I’m not a fighter. I’m just a high school student. I’m just Jeno. How can I be Spiderman? I look around me every single day and I see people who are so much better for this than I could ever be. Like you, and Captain America — you both went out and actively did things to give yourselves these powers to do good. All I did was go on a field trip to some top-secret lab and got unlucky.” Jeno laughed, but to his horror, it was a bit wet, pressure building up behind his eyes. He desperately tried to blink the tears away.

“And I can’t tell anyone,” he said, voice cracking. “Not Doyoung, anyway. Mark only knows because I was stupid and he caught me.”

“Kid,” Jaehyun said softly, finally reaching out to put a comforting hand on his arm. “This life isn’t easy for anybody, much less a kid. If you need more time to be just Jeno, you can, no pressure. No questions asked. But for what it’s worth — hey, look at me.”

Jeno did. Jaehyun was smiling so softly and sincerely down at him that Jeno considered pinching himself to make sure he wasn’t dreaming. 

“For what’s it’s worth, I think you’re doing an amazing job.”

Jeno cried for real then, crocodile tears streaming down his face. Jaehyun sighed and stood, coming to kneel in front of the chair. He pulled Jeno against his chest. “You’re gonna be okay.”

They sat there in silence for a while, Jaehyun holding Jeno in his arms while Jeno took deep breaths and tried not to get too many tears on Jaehyun’s designer suit jacket. It was a little awkward, but Jaehyun was warm, and he just stayed, never pushing Jeno or making him feel embarrassed for his tears.

When the crying slowed, they pulled apart, Jaehyun still kneeling in front of him. “So, what do you say, kid? Want to take a break?”

Taking a deep breath, Jeno shut his eyes and shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Why not?” Jaehyun’s surprise was palpable.

“Because when you have these kinds of powers, and people get hurt, and you didn’t do anything — well, then those people got hurt because of you. I can’t live with that. So I _have_ to be Spiderman. After all, for better or worse, I’m the one the spider bit.”

Jaehyun considered him for a moment. “Great power comes with great responsibility, Jeno Lee,” he said seriously. “And you’re probably the most responsible kid I’ve ever met. Maybe that spider knew what it was doing.”

Jeno teared up and Jaehyun just looked fondly exasperated, already opening his arms again.

“Okay, okay, get in here. But let’s not make this a habit, I have a reputation to consider.”

“You’re a cuddly teddy bear at heart, Mr. Jung,” Jeno sniffled.

“Tell anyone, and I’ll have to kill you,” Jaehyun whispered in his ear.

Jeno laughed wetly, but his heart was the lightest it had been in weeks. 


End file.
